Having sat through many pre-Budget reports and Budgets over the years, I can honestly say that today's offering from Chancellor Alistair Darling was one of the least interesting I can remember.
From an agricultural point of view, there was next to nothing. Even the invited experts contributing to our Cover It Live feature seemed to struggle at times - though their input was a good deal more entertaining than Mr Darling's monotonous tones.
Usually with these things it is the case that more substance emerges once the Chancellor has sat down and the accountants have had time to trawl through the press releases.
But even this process seems to have thrown up precious little. In a nutshell, the key points for farmers from today's pre-Budget speech are as follows:
• National Insurance contributions are to rise by 0.5% above a £20,000 threshold, but not until 2011
• VAT to return to 17.5% on 1 Jan, though farmers generally reclaim their VAT anyway
• Empty commercial properties with a rateable value of less than £18,000 will be exempt from business rates for another year (2010/11)
• Earnings from domestic wind turbines and solar panels to be tax free
• State pensions are to increase 2.5% from April 2010...
Of greater significance to farming, it would seem, are the things that have not changed, rather than those that have. In particular:
• There is to be no change in the threshold for inheritance tax exemption, which remains at £325,000
• There is to be no change in corporation tax for small businesses, which stays at 21%
• The previously-announced plans to scrap the Furnished Holiday Lettings rules from April 2010 will go ahead - things like washing machines and radiators will no longer get capital allowances, and such lettings will cease to be treated as a trade for capital gains tax purposes
And that's pretty much it! Given the dire state of the nation's finances, one might have expected something a bit tougher. But I guess this was offset by the prospect of next spring's general election.
As one or two of our invited experts hinted at, this could just be the calm before the storm. There could well be more to come in next year's Budget.
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